A truly devastating video is breaking the internet for all the right reasons. I suggest you watch it before you read any more of this article, because you might not even think you care about this issue until you’ve seen it, and you’ll probably cry your eyes out.

The video opens with young female voice over speaking to her father, who is in shot. As the camera pans down, we see the swollen belly of his female partner and realize the voice speaking is his unborn daughter. She is asking her father to think about the way he interacts with other men about women, because those men will have an impact on her world. As HuffPo reports:

By 14 she will have already been called a “bitch” or a “whore” by her male classmates; by 16 she will have already been groped or pressured into sex by a boy while she is steaming drunk; by 21 she may have been raped; and later in life she may end up in an abusive relationship that puts her life at risk.

She tells her father of the slow descent into mental and physical abuse, of her shame and confusion. How can she be a strong, independent woman with a PhD, and a victim of domestic violence? One day, that “perfect” husband nearly kills her.

The final words of the video are a request to her father, but really, every man and boy in the world.

“Dear Daddy, I know you will protect me from lions, tigers, guns, cars, and even sushi, without even thinking about the danger to your own life. But dear Daddy, I will be born a girl. Please do everything you can so that won’t stay the greatest danger of all.”

The video was put together by Norwegian charity CARE, but it has reverberated around the world — being viewed millions of times. It’s not hard to see why, it is absolutely heartbreaking, and in the most real and tangible of ways.

As a society, we still refuse to treat the relentless rape and domestic violence epidemic, primarily by men against women, as a crisis. There will be comments under this very post that say this video is sexist towards men, and that women are domestic abusers too, and that somehow this undermines the message. It doesn’t. Every reputable study on the matter shows that domestic violence, rape, and sexism are very much imbalanced crimes primarily committed against women by men. So, of course, that’s the conversation we need to have first and loudest. And frankly, the people making these arguments don’t seem to care about any of the domestic abuse and violence. They just don’t want to have to think about it because it’s horrible, and it makes them feel lost and impotent; because it makes them feel like they have to do something about it and they don’t know what. So, they make it someone else’s problem. Well newsflash, it’s all of our problem — women. because we will likely become victims of it, and men, because the women you love will face this threat. Every woman, even your unborn daughter.

Men and women, the sons and daughters we are raising will do this to each other if we cannot teach them not to.

Author: Kerry-AnneKerry-anne Mendoza is an independent journalist.
She is well know for investigative reports on politics, economics and social policy and is author of Amazon best-seller "Austerity: The Demolition of the Welfare State and the Rise of the Zombie Economy".
She has been traveling to and reporting from the Middle East for 13 years, most recently reporting from Gaza during Operation Protective Edge, and making the film 'Palestine: What Hope Peace?'
After a career as a management consultant holding senior positions in Banking, Health and Local Government - she gave it all up to live in a tent at Occupy London and has been writing ever since. She is based in the UK.